Key features

Content from many users

The content uploaded on the Loop Display can be added by different users, even at the same time

Remote set-up & control

Your Loop Display can be set up and controlled remotely from any phone with the Loop App. Set-up requires a Bluetooth Low Energy connection, while the rest of communication needs Wi-Fi.

Displaying photos & video

On your Loop, you can display photos & videos uploaded by your friends and family, as well as from their social media channels (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram). You can add any amount of the content in real-time!

Manual content management

You choose which content is displayed on the Loop Display. Quickly skip through photos and videos using the Browse dial. Thanks to the Channel knob you can flip through channels like a classic TV

Notifications

Your Loop always lets you know when someone sends you photos or videos, creates a channel or wants to start a video chat

Video chatting

You can call your friends and family by starting a video-chat between two Loop Displays or between a Loop Display and a smartphone

Photo transitions

On your Display you can view photos with the Ken Burns effect (slow panning and zooming)

Screen brightness & dimming

You can adjust the level of screen brightness and enable automatic dimming when the room is dark

OTA (over the air) updates

The Display’s firmware can be updated without a user’s involvement

Remote set-up & control

You can set up your Display using the Bluetooth connection, and communicate with it using Wi-Fi. Both can be done remotely from your phone

Creating channels

Channels allow you to organize content onto your Loop Display into curated feeds that you can enjoy privately or share with your friends and family

Inviting other users to channels

When you invite someone to your channel, they can view and add content to that specific channel. You can create different channels and invite different people to each one

Sending content directly to the display

You can quickly share as many pictures or videos as you want from your smartphone, Instagram, Facebook, and more. It shows up in seconds on the Display

Video chatting

You can start a video-chat between a Loop Display and a smartphone. All you need is a Wi-Fi connection to get started!

Photo transitions

You can adjust the length of time every photo is displayed and turn on the Ken Burns effect on the Display (it adds movement to photos with slow panning and zooming effects)

Screen brightness & dimming

You can adjust the level of screen brightness and enable automatic dimming when the room is dark

Sign up & log in

You can log in and sign up using your e-mail, Facebook or Google account

Content & channels deleting

You can delete content and channels whenever you want

Data storage

The Backend system stores all content and information about users and channel

Content update & notifications

Backend ensures that all of the client apps have up-to-date content and it even notifies users if necessary

Social media integration

Thanks to automatic synchronization with Social Media, a lot of content can be uploaded to many channels at once, without requiring user engagement

Admin panel

Admin can monitor statistics about uploads

Software updates

Admin can upload new versions of the Loop App

Managing public content

Admin can create public channels

How we did it

The solutions we used for the Display App Development

The biggest challenge arose from the fact that the Loop Display doesn’t have a touchscreen and the user manages it manually with special knobs. Consequently, the entire navigation had to be usable solely through these means.

This is why we chose to create our own custom architecture, specifically for Loop Display.

We developed the Display app for Android platform.

Languages

Java, Kotlin

Database

SQLite

Networking

Retrofit

Reactive programming

RxJava

Video calls

Tokbox

Push notifications

Pushy

Analytics

MixPanel

Continous integration

Bitrise

Technology

Bluetooth Low Energy (a display set-up feature)

The solutions we used for the iOS App Development

Media uploads were one of the biggest challenges. Users need to be able to upload any amount of media files across numerous channels, all while the app remained responsive and uploads progressed smoothly.

We decided to use highly efficient tools like Realm or Texture which covered the database notifications and UI respectively. Additionally, we had to become experts in threading and invent our own Queue of Queues, which is an excellent data structure for this use case.

Languages

Swift

Architecture

MVVM + Coordinators

Database

Realm Mobile Database

Networking

Moya

Reactive programming

RxSwift

Layout SDK

Texture (AsyncDisplayKit)

Video calls

Tokbox

Push notifications

PushKit, CallKit

Analytics

MixPanel, Instabug

Continous integration

BuddyBuild

The solutions we used for backend in the iOS & Display App

Optimizing media uploads was one of our main challenges. We developed a client direct upload flow using AWS services like S3, Lambda, and Elastic Transcoder.